For decades now, there has been a fashion war every spring. I’m not talking about a war on catwalks, between models or fashion designers, or even the fight to get companies to recognize how many women would like a good-looking swimsuit available in sizes beyond 12 or 14. I’m talking about teen girls and school dress codes. Whether it’s spaghetti straps, short skirts, low-cut tops, ripped jeans, or this year’s hot item, the crop top, schools across Canada are giving young women detentions, suspensions and even sending them home for clothing they deemed “inappropriate” and a “sexual distraction.”

“We’re trying to teach them how to be ready for life when they graduate high school, be it university or perhaps a job,” Suanne Stein Day, of the Lester B. Pearson School Board told CTV News.

At the Ottawa Citizen, Alheli Picazo summarizes how this kind of thinking unfairly punishes young women and puts the onus of responsibility on them for how male students might act. Picazo bluntly points out that all of this is an example of rape-culture. One principal literally told his students to “dress cool, not skanky.”

This is an issue that affects young women in schools around the world, not just Canada. And Picazo acknowledges the prospect of eventually holding men and women to equal standards can feel like a daunting task. But she highlights one way this can be done: “Much progress can be made by making clear these two simple truths: There is more to a man than his sexual desire; more to a woman than a moment’s attire.”